Why ruckus in Rajya Sabha over Goa may not help Opposition dethrone Manohar Parrikar

Why ruckus in Rajya Sabha over Goa may not help Opposition dethrone Manohar Parrikar

The Rajya Sabha was disrupted today when Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh accused Goan governor Mridula Sinha of committing 'gross constitutional impropriety' for inviting the BJP to form a government in the state.

the Supreme Court had found it legal and asked for a floor test, which Manohar Parrikar had passed with flying colours. (Express Photo)

The Rajya Sabha was disrupted today when Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh accused Goan governor Mridula Sinha of committing ‘gross constitutional impropriety’ for inviting the BJP to form a government in the state. Digvijay Singh, according to the IE, wanted to speak about the issue under the rule 267. The Deputy chairman if the Rajya Sabha, P J Kurien objected to it objected and asked him to move to a substantive motion. Following this, senior Congress leaders, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharm also got up and started demanding a discussion on the issue. Slogans such as “Loktantra ki hatya band karo, band karo”, which translates to stop killing democracy were shouted. Now, dissent as we say, is a form of democracy and the opposition is well within their rights to shout slogans and demand discussion, but the question is, to what end?

Here is why creating a ruckus in Rajya Sabha over Goa will not help opposition dethrone Manohar Parrikar:

1) He has formed the government and even cleared the floor test just hours ago. So there is no possible way, legally and under the constitution to dethrone him from the post of the Chief Minister.

2) The opposition (Congress) had almost attained a majority in the state. It had 17 seats to its name and needed just one more to form a government. But, call it laziness or uncertain decision making by the senior leaders of Congress in charge of Goa, they failed to capitalise when the stakes were high and BJP with the help of its alliances, won Goa.

3) CM Manohar Parrikar had said a few days ago that no MLA wanted to be on Congress’ side. Which makes sense, since Congress could not manage even one MLA to get to their side to form the government. So why cry and crib about the governor inviting BJP and not them, since they sat idle, instead of forming a majority.

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4) The Congress did not have the required number of seats to form a government in Goa. Even on the day of the floor test, they had less than 17 MLAs. Manohar Parrikar successfully won the floor test with 22 MLAs

5) The infighting within Congress has also come out of the shadows. Two former Congress Ministers were even seen criticising sycophancy and problem with the leadership of the grand old party and even suggested that the party if it has to survive, has to do whatever necessary.

So we can conclude here, that the opposition can cry foul all they want but the fact remains that Congress failed to capitalise on their number of seats in the state assembly polls and BJP saw a chance and took it. Even the Supreme Court had found it legal and asked for a floor test, which Manohar Parrikar had passed with flying colours. So there is absolutely no point in disrupting a major institution such as the Rajya Sabha over a case of sour grapes.